PS.  Mini vans are awesome. Not sure what has become of me.

Try some of these easy ways to do your part this Earth Day:

Get Involved Locally

No matter where you live there will be several events and opportunities for you to help your community. Volunteering on Earth Day is a great way to meet new people who cherish the earth as much as you do! Take a look at the Earth Day Indiana website to find events and causes in the Indianapolis area.

Ditch the Paper

Maybe you don’t have time to sign-up for an all day event on Earth Day. That’s okay. You can make a major impact in the comforts of your own home. Take 30 minutes at some point during the day to enroll in paperless billing for all of your bills. It’s a simple step but it can have a great impact. You’ll save hundreds, maybe thousands of pounds of paper each year.

Pool With a Pal

Use this Earth Day as an opportunity to set up a carpool with a friend. Not only will you save on fuel usage but you’ll have the opportunity to spend some quality time with a friend too! You’ll even have time each day to talk about how you can green up your lifestyle. This extra time with a likeminded friend will provide you with the opportunity to share ideas and goals.

Make It a Constant Holiday

There’s really no reason Earth Day has to come only once a year. This year make the commitment to live earth-conscious year round. Focus your efforts on saving energy, reducing waste, and giving back to the environment. The best way to make a big impact is to spread the word so pass your passion on to friends and family!

What are your plans for Earth Day 2013? If you have a creative way to reduce waste or save energy, please share in the comment section!

If your like most people, you don’t spend your time thinking about the air you’re breathing. But as the food we eat dictates the health of our bodies, so too, does the quality of air dictate many health issues. In fact, organizations like the EPA, American Lung Association, and World Health Organization have all cited indoor air quality (IAQ) as an increasing in risk to health stemming from a number of factors. While improvements in both construction methods and material have enabled homes to have greater levels of insulation than ever before which provides the benefit of increased efficiency to keep your home at a comfortable temperature, those same factors keep than same home’s climate less ventilated. Therefore, things like cooking and cleaning and the products associated can include harmful chemicals that have few routes of escape. The EPA estimates levels of pollutants indoors can be 2 to 5 times higher than outside. And when you combine that with the fact most of us spend 90% of our adult lives indoors, the risks become even greater. I could go into more detail about the risks, but lets get into the solutions.

From a decreased chemicals standpoint, experts like Joe at Indy Green Clean, can point you in the right direction in terms of the safest products to use for both your home environment and the environment at large. While the EPA oversees the chemicals and byproducts being dumped into the atmosphere, in many ways you have to serve as the EPA of your home. The direction we work from at Homesense, is to provide the best indoor air quality available knowing it’s impossible to keep all contaminants from entering your homes air supply. We do so primarily by looking at the level of filtration within an HVAC system. Filtration is rated of is rated on a scale called a MERV rating (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value), which range from 1 to 16 (least to greatest) in a filters ability to remove particle from conditioned air. The research is copious in both the strategy and degree of particle removal, but suffice it to say there are options all along the scale and as filtration removal increases, so too, to prices.

With all of the known factors like more tightly constructed homes, the majority of our life being spent indoors, the levels of chemicals in many household products, and risks of disease outbreak always threatening, we believe now is the time to get serious about indoor air quality. We’d love to help answer any questions you have about your home.

Some of you might know that I graduated college with a degree in Music Ministry.  This is great for those who want a career working in a church but not worth a whole lot for anyone else, namely myself.  But the whole music thing has always been a part of my life.  From being in punk band in High School, to sitting in my basement playing along to music, mostly guitar has had a role in my life.  Sometimes this role in my life also affected my bankroll…  Hi, I am Joe.  I am a guitar gear junky. Well, I was at one point of my life.  At my peak I had bought about 10 thousand dollars in gear.  The more shocking part is I bought the bulk of this while making 100 bucks a week as an intern. Long story short, gear sold about 7 years ago.  This was also about the same time that I lost ALL interest in playing music.   I can honestly say that there were years that I did not play guitar.  Crazy to think about considering how much time I spent playing in High School, College, and as a job.  Was I ever great, Nah.  With music it helps to just know how to fake it, and I was solid at that.  So every so often I would pick up a guitar and take a strum.  That was about it.  I have played a little more in the last couple of years but then all of a sudden, the mojo was back.

It was like someone had turned on a light switch.  I have played more in the last month then I have in the last eight years.  Not sure why but the passion is there.  The gear monster wants to creep back in but I am soooooo tight with my money it is not much of an issue.  The coolest part is that it seems to be easier to learn this time around.  Scales all seem to make sense.  I can look at my fret board and I am not confused as I once was.  It is as if my brain has been reprogramed to see it differently. I am a big fan of this.  I am also a big fan of youtube.  Youtube was not the insane video juggernaut that it is now last time I really played guitar.  All the free lessons are fantastic.  Better lessons then what I once paid for.  I am excited about this new year, old hobbies, and new mojo.

Here is the ingredient list.

4 Gallons Spring Water

15lbs of Clover Honey

1lb of Raisins

3 Sticks of cinnamon

5gm Pack of Lalvin D47 Yeast

5 tsp Yeast Nutrient

So we sterilized everything and got the yeast in some water to start its thing for about 15min. We went with the no heat approach. Poured the 4 gallons of water in the carboy via a funnel.  Poured in the 15lbs of honey and then added the 1lb of raisins.  Adding the raisins after the honey was a bad choice.  They all were stuck together and had to be forced down through the funnel.  This made for a very funny scene of me poking the raisins down the funnel, and the raisins still stuck together plopping down into the liquids.  Needless to say to a bunch of guys this was extremely funny.  Added the nutrient, and then the yeast.  We covered the top and semi mounted the carboy sideways on the ground and shook it all up wildly to get everything mixed together.  We each took turn because it was some serious hard work.  This lasted for about 10 min and us laughing at us doing this lasted all night.  I am going to buy a mixer for my drill before next time.  We added the airlock and took it to the basement.

In about 24 hours the yeast has started doing its thing and there are bubbles and the awesome smell of fermentation.  I honestly cannot wait to try it and I will have a very small taste in two weeks when it goes into the second carboy in which it will stay for months.  I am already looking at new recipes and how to do different things with mead.  I will let you know how it turns out!  This is something that you should do with a friend.  It would have been much less funny alone. I am not an expert at this so do not give me too hard of a time if I said anything wrong in my process.

Don’t freak out, but Thanksgiving is literally just around the corner. Before long you’ll no doubt be baking pies, candying yams and roasting a turkey. If you normally pick up a frozen Butterball for the family meal, you may want to reconsider. Most turkeys bought at chain stores are raised in some pretty rough conditions–and fed stuff you wouldn’t recognize. This year do yourself (and your family) a favor and buy a locally raised, pasture-fed turkey.

The GOOD Stuff Inside

Pasture raised turkeys are known for providing healthy protein, selenium, vitamins B3 and B6, phosphorus and zinc. Some of those may sound made up, but believe me…they’re good things! According to Dr. Mercola grass-fed birds provide conjugated linoleic acid (CLA),which is a fat known to aid in weight loss, balance blood sugar levels and fight cancer. That’s a triple bonus! Along with all of these great things, pasture raised turkeys also contain higher levels of Omega-3s, vitamins and folic acid than their caged up counterparts.

The BAD Stuff NOT Inside

Hearing about the good stuff inside pasture raised turkeys is exciting, but knowing what bad things aren’t inside is even more so. Commercially raised turkeys are spoon-fed hormones, GMO feed and antibiotics from birth to keep them alive and growing despite their unfortunate living conditions. This sounds harmless to many, but these chemical additives are often derived from arsenic and other carcinogens. All of this nasty stuff happens during the growth period of the bird, but it doesn’t stop there. After the birds are prepared, they are then soaked in chlorine and ammonia to kill off all the bacteria (both the good and the bad). All of this bad stuff, when considered with the good stuff in a pastured bird, makes the hunt for a local farm extremely important.

If you’re ready to make the switch to support local farmers, here are some Indiana farms that sell grass-fed poultry:

Apple Family Farms-Isa small family run farm just outside of Indy offering grass-fed beef, dairy, sheep, eggs and turkey.

Schacht Farms-Thissmall farm specializes in pastured beef, chicken, eggs, turkey and pork. Visit their website for more information on placing orders and farm events.

Seven Sons Family Farm-A Fort Wayne farm that currently has pick up for 100% grass-fed beef, chicken and turkey here in Indianapolis. Order now, they go quickly!

Stonewall Farm-AnEvansville farm dedicated to providing healthy grass-fed livestock all year. They accept online orders, so visit their website for your Thanksgiving Turkey.

Wolfridge Heritage Farm–This quaint little farm offers everything from pastured turkeys to Icelandic sheep. Turkeys go fast, so contact them soon!

Simpson Family Farm– A 7th Generation Indiana family farm that offers grass fed turkeys and other animals.

I hope some of this information has helped you make the decision to go local–and go grass fed this Thanksgiving. Start with the holidays and pick up a local Christmas ham, then continue the tradition by buying from local sources each week. Supporting local farmers is rewarding, good for the economy and will probably have a huge impact on your health.

Local farms and healthy food options are things we can all be thankful for, would you agree?

Full disclosure: I am a gamer, and have been since getting my first home console, the Atari 2600, for Christmas in 1980. There are so many Easter eggs in this movie aimed squarely at gamers that I could not help but be completely engrossed. Disney has tapped into the perfect market with Wreck It Ralph: they have made a wonderful family movie that most people of my generation will be rushing out to see, with or without the kids. We gamers who grew up in the age of arcades now have kids of our own to whom we have most likely passed our love of video games. Wreck It Ralph will allow us to share in the joy of their recognition of Bowser from Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sue from Pac Man (voiced by Tim Allen), but will also give us a gateway to introduce them to the classic games we grew up with that are referenced in the movie like Q-Bert, Root Beer Tapper, and Street Fighter.

Nostalgia aside, this is a strong film, made with the heart we have come to expect from Pixar—and this is not a Pixar film. Pixar’s fingerprints are all over this movie. Disney Animation has had some good ideas that misfired in their execution in recent years (Bolt, anyone?). But John Lassiter is teaching the Disney Animation team how to execute a story in the Pixar fashion. Some financial analysts questioned the price tag of Disney’s acquisition of Pixar, feeling that $7 billion was too much, and that Pixar’s track record of producing hits would have to end and the company would not recoup its investment. After watching Wreck It Ralph, I think the analysts have it completely wrong. The guys from Pixar are teaching the Disney animators how to make great animated films again—which they patterned after Walt Disney, ironically enough. If Wreck It Ralph is any indication, this acquisition will be paying dividends for years to come.

I also have to mention the cartoon short in front of the movie called “Paper Man.” It is a sweet love story, well told and beautifully animated. The characters look like they stepped out of the heyday of Disney hand drawn animation, reminding me of the characters in 101 Dalmatians. It is also in black and white, with only one swath of color throughout, the red lipstick of the female protagonist. I am not a student of art, but this is a beautiful looking cartoon.

Finally, I screened the movie in 2D. There is a 3D version available for the additional charge, of course; however, the conversations I have had with people who watched it in 3D said the 3D was good, but nothing spectacular. It sounds like the usual with Disney 3D. Most families I know skip the 3D upcharge because their young kids will not know the difference. If your family enjoys 3D, this is well done; if you usually skip the extra feature, you are not missing out on anything spectacular.

Overall, Wreck It Ralph is well worth your time and money at the movies this weekend, or in the weekends to come.

In a bit of counter-programming (up against Disney’s Wreck It Ralph and Oscar bait Flight starring Denzel Washington) Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth release their production of The Man with the Iron Fists.

The plot is a simple setup: three different parties (a couple of assassins, a group of warriors who have recently killed their old leader, and a rogue British soldier) descend on a corrupt town in feudal China in order to steal a treasure of gold. In the village lives a blacksmith with a hidden past who inevitably leads the defense of his village.

The film—written and directed by, as well as starring The RZA of Wu-Tang Clan fame—is right in the wheelhouse of both Tarantino and Eli Roth. It is evident that RZA is also a fan of 1970s exploitation Kung Fu films. The opening credits set the tone to let you know that this is definitely a love letter to Hong Kong. From the opening sequence we know that the violence is going to be frequent, bloody, and abundant. One of the primary set pieces of the film is the local brothel, run by Lucy Liu, so there is also a good amount of sex and drug use thrown in for good measure.

I won’t waste time trying to describe the plot, because in a film like this it is secondary. While I personally am not a fan of Kung Fu films, the story set up well enough for me to buy into the premise and enjoy the final showdown where the three groups converge on the brothel for a spectacularly bloody finale.

If you are a fan of Tarantino, Roth, or 1970s Kung Fu, you will find The Man with the Iron Fists two hours of fun escapism.